Congressional communication : content & consequences / Daniel Lipinski.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lipinski, Daniel.

Contributor:

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), publisher.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Congress--Constituent communication.

United States.

Communication in politics--United States.

Communication in politics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (156 p.)

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

"Lipinski's impressive analysis of members' communications with constituents yields major insights about partisanship, effects on reelection prospects, and constituent evaluations." --Bruce Oppenheimer, Vanderbilt University "The communication between representatives and their constituents is where election strategy and policy explanations are merged and, until now, we have had only anecdotal evidence. Lipinski's book sheds light on this important part of American political life." --David Brady, Stanford University Congressional Communication challenges the notion that legislators "run against Congress" by routinely denigrating the institution. Using a unique, systematic analysis of the communication from members of Congress to their constituents over a five-year period, Daniel Lipinski challenges this notion, demonstrating key partisan differences in representatives' portrayals of congressional activities. While members of the majority party tend to report that the institution-and, hence, their party-is performing well, members of the minority party are more likely to accuse Congress of doing a poor job. The findings in Congressional Communication offer the first strong empirical evidence from the electoral arena in support of controversial party government theories. Moving beyond previous studies that look only at legislators' messages, Lipinski's research also reveals the effects of these politically strategic claims on voters, whose interpretations don't necessarily bear out the legislators' intended effects. Daniel Lipinski is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee.

Contents:

Studying congressional communication

Measuring members' messages with mail

Members' messages regarding Congress

Running with the party

Members' success in communicating information to constituents

The electoral impact of members' messages

A new view of members' behavior and the representative-constituent connection.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on information from the publisher.

ISBN:

9786612444555

9781282444553

1282444557

9780472023745

0472023748

OCLC:

842282076